ARMORED SAINT - "NOD TO THE OLD SCHOOL" (METAL BLADE)

 

Armored Saint have been around since the early eighties, which classifies their music as 'old school' heavy metal. Though vocalist John Bush concentrated on Anthrax for a while, the band apparently never really split.

"Nod to the Old School" contains a collection of old tracks previous only available on vinyl, some live stuff, some new stuff, and even re-recordings. It's kind of a goodie bag with a lot of rare tracks thrown in, essential listening fodder for the Saint-adoring masses.

The album kicks off with six recently recorded studio tracks, including re-recordings of "March of the Saint" and "Tainted Past" (acoustic) and two covers in the form of "Never Satisfied" (Judas Priest) and "Day of the Eagle" (Robin Trower). These new tracks are good metal material, with "Day of the Eagle" displaying some really good guitar work. Next follow two live tracks ("After Me, The Flood" and "Creepy Feelings"), pretty cool. Then follow a collection from various early 80's vinyl offerings, interesting for the rather more avid Armored Saint fan. They sound dated, obviously, though "People" sounds more contemporary, even funky. "Get Lost" sounds much inspired by old Metallica (it's quite similar to "No Remorse", riff-wise).

"Nod to the Old School" is an album of limited interest to non-Armored Saint fans. It's not a collection of their best work, rather a "new, live and rare" product. Armored Saint fans will probably want to look out for the limited edition double CD version, which also includes "Medival Nightmares" from the 1989 4-track demo as well as 4 live and video clip CD ROM tracks.

RK

 

Written July 2001

 

Go to the Official Armored Saint Site

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